Fifteen years after construction started, the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir is scheduled to reach its final height of 175 meters this fall. After 27 million cubic meters of cement have been poured, 39 cubic kilometers of water have been stored, and 1.3 million people have been resettled, it is time to take stock.
I have monitored the Three Gorges Project ever since the Swiss government approved export credits for it in the mid-1990s. I have discussed the project with Chinese government officials, affected people and environmental experts, and had the chance to visit the dam site this summer. I would like to offer the following conclusions from this experience for discussion:
• China completed the highly complex, challenging construction project ahead of schedule, which is rare in the international hydropower sector. Technically, the Three Gorges Dam is a masterpiece of Chinese engineering. The government insists that with a cost of $27.2 billion, the project was built within budget. Others claim that many costs do not appear in the official calculations, and that the project may cost up to $88 billion.
The Three Gorges Dam
• The hydropower project on the Yangzi River substitutes for burning at least 30 million tons of coal every year, which is more than 1 percent of China’s total coal consumption. However, the Three Gorges Dam was not the only option for replacing coal. During the 2001-05 period, the energy efficiency of the Chinese economy dropped. According to Douglas Ogden of the Energy Foundation, it would have been “cheaper, cleaner and more productive for China to have invested in energy efficiency” rather than in new power plants.
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